The first step toward the 2024 NFL season starts on Tuesday, as teams are finally able to place a franchise tag on one of their players to keep control of them for at least another year.
Teams have from Tuesday. February 20 until Tuesday, March 5 at 4 p.m. ET to place a franchise or transition tag on a player, and if they don’t, that player is set to hit the free-agent market when the “legal-tampering period” begins on Monday, March 11 at noon.
For the Miami Dolphins, there are a few candidates for the tag, but Christian Wilkins is the most popular name thrown around in these discussions.
Wilkins, 28, was selected by the Dolphins with pick No. 13 in the 2019 NFL draft following a collegiate career at Clemson that included two national championships and two First-team All-American seasons.
Since entering the NFL, Wilkins has appeared in 81 games, recording 355 tackles (43 for a loss), 50 quarterback hits, 20.5 sacks, 19 passes defenses, six fumble recoveries, four forced fumbles and an interception.
Now, he’s set to be a free agent after career highs in both quarterback hits (23) and sacks (nine) in 2023. This likely means that Wilkins has increased his value from last year, which may be more than the Dolphins are willing to pay him.
Despite the team currently sitting $50 million over the projected salary cap, the smart move now would be to use one of the tags on Wilkins to prevent him from walking for nothing.
If Miami places a tag on him, they can continue negotiating if they hope to get a long-term deal done to keep him in aqua and orange for years to come, but they could also find a willing trade partner to guarantee a return.
The Dolphins could let him sign somewhere else as an unrestricted free agent and receive a compensatory pick in 2025, but that’s risky, considering Wilkins could get hurt next year, which would drop the value of the pick from a potential third-round selection to one later in the draft.
A trade on the franchise tag would guarantee a return that Miami is comfortable with and could even get them a return sooner if another team is willing to part with a pick in the 2024 draft.
Either way, the smart business is using that tag on Wilkins, and even if they can’t find a trade partner and can’t make the money work to keep him in South Florida for the foreseeable future, they can always rescind the tag and make him an unrestricted free agent again.
